Ghosts and Little People

Try it before you scoff. Subtly introduce the subject of ghosts into a conversation with even the most erudite and grounded person, and see if they don't have macabre tales of unexplained weirdness and spectral intrigue. Ghosts and little people (elves, brownies, fairies, goblins, etc.) are a worldwide subject of belief and conjecture. If they aren't real, then why do so many experience them? I'm not saying ghosts and little people exist...I don't know...but if they don't, what's the explanation?

Ben Franklin's Prolific and Eclectic Inventiveness

Ben Franklin invented, among other things; bifocals, a flexible urinary catheter, watertight bulkheads, the lightning rod, the franklin stove, fire insurance companies, fire companies, and his own odometer. How did he do it? What kind of thinker was he that he could invent so many knew and useful things in so many different fields?

What we know about human evolution that just ain't so

In last months Discover Magazine there are articles on recent developments and discoveries in the field of paleontology. When I was going through grad school in Anthropology ten years ago, the earliest bipedal precursor to modern humans was Australopithecus afarensis, of which "Lucy" is an example. A. afarensis bumbled about the ancient outdoors around 3.5 million years ago. Paleontologists found a few bones last year, however, that shoved that date back to 7 million years...they DOUBLED granny and grandpa's age with a couple of dusty fossils.

Same thing happened with the dates placed on the earliest model of modern Homo sapiens...pushed back from 30,000 years bp to 90,000 years bp with the recent discovery of a few skeletal bits and pieces. I give evolutionary theory quite a bit of credence, considering the fact I'm a big believer in Creation by a divine Deity, but this is a prime example of how evolutionary scientists like to make grandiose claims about what we Know that just ain't so. Of course, at least the scientists are willing to say they were wrong.

The evolutionary impetus to be dissatisfied

Males are largely motivated by the evolutionary impetus to spread their seed around to as many fertile females as possible. That's how they maximize their reproductive success. Females are impelled to carefully make a nest or safe haven in which to raise their more limited number of eggs. That's how they maximize their evolutionary success. No news here. Human evolutionary ecology has been saying this for years (and it was probably understood soon after Darwin...God knew it long before that of course).

What occurred to me this morning is that it is also good evolutionary strategy for the individual to never be satisfied with what they have, and that the individual sets the bar based on what is available in the environment. That means a man on the Island of Ugly Women or in the Playboy Mansion will always want the cutest one(s) and wish that they were cuter. That also means that the woman with the best husband and biggest house in the neighborhood (city, state, universe, etc.), will always want a better one.

All things being equal however, it's better to be the best husband in a pool of poor ones or the cutest wife in pool of hags. But it's guaranteed that your mate will wish you were better. It's in their nature.

Future Tech: Touch Screen Anywhere

There are cameras, not currently available to the public, that allow movement on a flat surface such as a wall or whiteboard, to be captured to the user's computer. When such a camera is combined with a multi-media projector (pocket versions now available), the users desktop can be projected on any flat surface and the user's finger can be used as a mouse on that projection. Further miniaturization should allow an affordable and portable touch screen computer not much bigger than current cell phones.

The Lost Tribe

Amazon.com: Books: The Lost Tribe: A Harrowing Passage into New Guinea's Heart of Darkness

Eating a book about a guy who heard about the discovery of a "lost tribe" in the highlands of Papua New Guinea in 1993. He wanted to see them for himself, so he asked around in New Guinea, hired a guide, loaded his bags, and lumbered off into the forest.

Key points:
--"No" is easy to say and easy to accept, because it makes life easier for the asker and the teller, but "no" gets you nowhere
--Just because no one else has done it doesn't mean it's impossible or even especially difficult
--You have to want to
--Fold metaphor into every aspect of your writing
--Excuses will keep you comfortable and safe but bored and uninteresting
--Travel writing can be served up as hot and sexy as a John LeCarre novel

Fly wheels are used to store energy in kinetic form. While braking a car for example part of the energy is absorbed by spinning up the flywheel. The energy is pulled out again when needed using an alternator to produce electric power.

Fast Company | The Strategy of the Fighter Pilot

Nice intro to Boyd applied to business conflict.

Read about John Boyd, a (now deceased) fighter pilot, whose theories on conflict have proponents in high places (Colin Powell for one). Boyd was a real thinker...a philosopher...who drew his ideas from the natural world, Sun Tzu, Napoleon, and anywhere else he could. He actually applied his philosophy to the real world, and had a standing challenge that he could beat any other pilot in a dogfight in less than 30 seconds. He never lost.

Currently under development are spray-on video screens. You spray the screen on any surface and can change the colors by the application of electrical currents. Also under development are bendable video screens. Think the military doesn't already have chameleon camo?

Read in Discover magazine that all cell phones are required to be able to report their GPS coordinates, ostensibly for safety purposes, by the year 2005. That means tiny GPS transmitters will be ubiquitous. How else might we use that?

Read in Fast Company about inexpensive and miniscule metallic "tags" that carry information and can be scanned from a distance by radio receivers. Many companies are already using them for inventory management. How else might we use that?

Remember; dream, design, test, tweak, and try.

I'm reading To Conquer the Air, by Tobin, about the Wright brothers.

They succeeded where others did not because they dreamed, designed, tested, tweaked, and tried, while others only dreamed, designed, and tried...or just dreamed. The Wrights were big on scientific testing. Although, neither Orville nor Wilbur graduated from college, and although they were bicycle repairmen and no more qualified to build flying machines than am I, they surpassed the greatest experts of the day. How? They used meticulous and systematic trial and error, stick-to-it-ivness, and creative design insights. All of these techniques are available to almost anyone.